CREATION: Decipher brings back "commercial reality"

<p>The Lowe Group's Decipher rang in the New Year with the opening of </p><p>its first Hong Kong office. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>While the management consultancy firm names corporate giants HSBC and </p><p>Unilever among clients, its entry into the Hong Kong market was on a </p><p>relatively small scale. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The company launched its operations with just three members of staff, </p><p>including Decipher managing director Nigel Wally and case manager </p><p>Richard Ambrose. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to Mr Wally, Decipher is here to bring "commercial reality" </p><p>back into the Internet and technology. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Decipher, he explained, was all about numbers. The company's strategy is </p><p>to work with clients interested in researching and forming a business </p><p>model before huge sums of money are spent on making the company </p><p>digital-savvy. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The company markets itself as "an independent and objective source of </p><p>intelligence on ecommerce via the Internet, digital TV and new mobile </p><p>technologies". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Mr Wally criticised competitors Web Connection and Icon Medialab, which </p><p>he said "offered you advice, but what they were doing in reality was to </p><p>convince you to build a big website and a big contract to integrate your </p><p>ecommerce system". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Unlike the big players in this new media world, the ones you see doing </p><p>everything, we are highly specialised in commercial analysis and </p><p>consumer analysis on the ecommerce side, based on detailed understanding </p><p>of the dynamics of different business sectors," Mr Wally said. "We turn </p><p>all this technical jargon and Internet babble back into good old </p><p>fashioned business talk and commercial rationale. And our starting point </p><p>for any digital initiative whether it's Internet, mobile or interactive </p><p>TV, is the numbers, so we take a very different approach to traditional </p><p>players like Icon Media Labs, Web Connection and others." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>While industry analysts argue that it could be years before we see </p><p>anything substantial come out of interactive TV, Decipher, according to </p><p>Mr Wally, is here for the planning stage. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"If you are a great big tanker of a company, it would take more to turn </p><p>your business model, so you would really need to start to do your </p><p>thinking now. No one suggests that big companies should throw lots of </p><p>money into the interactive TV side, however, there is an awful lot of </p><p>consumer thinking to be done to plan for the next three to 15 years," </p><p>said Mr Wally. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Decipher is to initially work with multinational corporations that are </p><p>also its clients in the UK, including GM, Unilever and HSBC. The company </p><p>will also seek partnerships with regional players. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"We get a sense that there is a bubbling up of change on the TV market </p><p>in Hong Kong. It's getting full of opportunities for interactive </p><p>players ... We will be working with TV companies here to develop iTV and </p><p>broadband content." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Decipher also expects to play a role in the development of Hong Kong's </p><p>CyberPort. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Established two years ago in the UK, Decipher has guided companies in </p><p>the integration of technology into traditional business models. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>